Dennis Blair: US Can Kill Suspected American Terrorists Abroad
by Nick Wing
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair offered confirmation on Wednesday that the U.S. intelligence community is authorized to assassinate Americans abroad who are considered direct terrorist threats to the United States.
"We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community," Blair told lawmakers at a House Intelligence Committee hearing. "If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that."
Blair, who was on Capitol Hill Wednesday to give an annual threat assessment, also confirmed al Qaeda's continued ambitions to carry out another attack on American soil.
This latest information comes in the wake of a string of terrorist plots that have reportedly stemmed from radicalized Americans overseas.
The Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al Awlaki, a former imam at a mosque in Falls Church, Va., was in contact with both Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the perpetrator of the failed Christmas airline bombing, as well as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the officer accused of killing 13 people at Ft. Hood, Tex. in November. |
